Asterisk

Set up an office phone system, make free or very cheap phone calls over the internet and create your own interactive voice response systems.


Description:
Asterisk is an open source/free software system which allows you to set up a telephone private branch exchange (PBX) and connect to other telephone services including the public telephone network. You can set up features such as voice mail, conference calling, interactive voice response (phone menus), and automatic call forwarding.

Asterisk can be connected to a VoIP provider to save cost on long distance calls and Asterisk has the ability to connect to one or more Asterisk server (multiple offices setup) and route calls between your offices.

Asterisk runs on a wide variety of operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Sun Solaris.

Website: Asterisk

Version: 1.4.14

License:Asterisk® is released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and it is available for download free of charge.

Costs: Asterisk Software is Free

Languages: Multi language support

System Requirements:

  • Hardware:
System SOHO System Small System Medium-Large System
Number of Channels Up to 10 Up to 15 More than 15
Minimum Hardware Recommended 1-GHz x86, 512 MB RAM 3-GHz x86, 2 GB RAM Dual or Quadcore CPUs, multiple servers in a distributed architecture with 4 GB or higher memory
  • Additional software/plug-ins required:
    • Asterisk requires the following applications / software.
      • Sounds
        • Default IVRi files and miscellaneous sound files. Prompts are available in English, Spanish, and French languages and in various codecs such as g722 (HD Voice), ulaw, alaw, gsm, and g729.
      • Libpri
        • Primary Rate ISDN (PRIi) library for T1/E1/J1 interfaces.
      • Zaptel
        • Kernel interface device drivers for Analog and Digital interface cards. Digium hardware requires Zaptel drivers.
  • Asterisk Add-ons
    • An addons package, which includes MySQL support for call detail records and MP3 support for MOH (Music on hold)

Installation Level:Difficult

Usage Level:Moderate

Troubleshooting Level:Difficult

Downloads and/or Service Links:

Image:Linux.png
Download

Installation and Configuration:

Additional Resources: (FAQs, tutorials, documentations, manuals)